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DISTILLED SPIRITS COUNCIL, GOLDRING FAMILY FOUNDATION SUPPORT LSU CONFERENCE ON COLLEGE ALCOHOL ABUSE

October 15, 2001 12:00 pm

BATON ROUGE Oct. 15, 2001 — The Distilled Spirits Council and Louisiana Wholesaler William Goldring today presented a $25,000 grant to Louisiana State University at Eunice to convene a three-day academic conference on combatting alcohol abuse on college campuses. The conference, taking place Oct. 14-16 at LSU’s Baton Rouge campus, is being convened by LSU, LSU at Eunice, the Distilled Spirits Council and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). “As a former university chancellor, I know the importance of reaching out to the community and working together to create sustainable plans to combat alcohol abuse on our nation’s campuses,” said Dr. Peter H. Cressy, Distilled Spirits Council President and former chancellor of UMass Dartmouth. “The distilled spirits industry is a part of the community and we will continue our longstanding commitment to social responsibility.” Fifteen Louisiana colleges and universities are attending the conference with their campus-community teams to develop specific, action-oriented plans to take back and implement in their community. Each team includes university officials and students, beverage alcohol industry representatives, law enforcement officials and other community leaders. SPIRITS COUNCIL, GOLDRING SUPPORT LSU CONFERENCE At the conference, nationally-recognized speakers from universities, government and alcohol-related organizations are presenting information and research on a range of programs and best practices being used successfully on campuses to reduce alcohol abuse among college students. “This will be the first regional conference designed to form a statewide coalition of Louisiana’s colleges and universities to address the problem of alcohol abuse on our campuses,” said Dr. William J. Nunez III, Chancellor of Louisiana State University at Eunice. “We are pleased to work with the Distilled Spirits Council to bring this program to Louisiana.” The state conference is modeled off of “The American Campus and Alcohol” conference, a national conference convened in Washington D.C. last October by the Distilled Spirits Council and five universities. LSU at Eunice was one of 34 participating universities that later applied for a matching grant from the Distilled Spirits Council and a local beverage alcohol wholesaler to fund the school’s plan to host a similar conference for Louisiana schools. “Fighting alcohol abuse on our nation’s campuses takes a commitment from both the college and the community. The spirits industry is fully committed to this effort and I am extremely pleased to be a part of such an important conference,” said Magnolia Marketing Co. Chairman William Goldring, a wine and spirits wholesaler in New Orleans whose Family Foundation provided a $10,000 grant to support the Louisiana conference. The Distilled Spirits Council is co-convening additional regional campus conferences at Trinity University in Texas in November, Eastern Oregon University in spring 2002 and a conference in the southern region next fall.